Choose Your Own Blog Post

As time goes by, my blog seems to be evolving. I am enjoying the time I spend writing and the feedback I receive from my readers. In the psychological terms, this is referred to as a positive feedback loop. I dig it.

As a kid I used to love the “choose your own adventure” books. I would often read every possible adventure choice to see how things turned out. It revealed to me a very important lesson I have carried into adulthood. Every decision we make affects our future. To what extent we may never know, or may never think about.

Who we are today is a direct result of the decisions we have made in the past. This is can be rather sobering for those whom have never thought much about it. There is a huge amount of opportunity when we think of life in this manner. When you reflect on your life, if you decide you don’t like who you are today, it is very EASY to make changes. Simply change the decisions you make on a daily basis.

For example, if you wake up one morning and discover you are 30 pounds overweight (speaking from my own personal experience) it isn’t hugely difficult to make changes to decrease the waistline bulge. You simply have to pay attention to the decisions you, often, make on autopilot every single day. Start first thing in the morning. Instead of the venti latte, perhaps, switch to a tall coffee. Use just a splash of half and half and add no sugar. With this simple cognitive decision, you have removed 200-400 calories from you diet. And the day just started. Think about every single thing you put in your body and the result it’s having. Are the decisions and habits about diet serving you or hindering you?

This is one example of choosing your own adventure in life. The opportunities for change in your life are only as limited as the time you are willing to spend reviewing the decisions you make every day.

We are a society of instant gratification. We want it NOW! and we want it bigger, better, faster. Unfortunately, when it comes to personal development and change, things rarely happen this quickly. We WAY over estimate what we can accomplish in a month, or a year. We way UNDER estimate what we can accomplish in 5 or 10 years. Remember, the decisions which brought you to where you are, took your entire lifetime to make. Don’t be discouraged if the changes you make don’t yield immediate results. If you stick with it, it is assured you will see differences in your life.

An airplane leaving from LA heading to London charts a course. Just to make things easy, let’s say to fly to London, the course set is dead on 90 degrees (east). Minutes after take off, the pilot thinks the course is an error, and adjusts the course to 85 degrees. The plane would still be heading east, but now with a slight northerly heading. If you were a passenger that had flown this route many times, the route would appear unchanged for you for quite some time. Due to the large body of water you would fly over called the Atlantic Ocean in route to London, the course change would likely be completely imperceptible to you. The change would only become clear around the time you were supposed to arrive in London. In fact, from a simple 5 degree change at the beginning of the trip, you would be nearly 500 miles north of London when you were due to arrive!

I know, I know. what’s the point? The point is, some believe you must make drastic change, abrupt, changes in life to see any benefit. Often, these choices are impossible to adhere to, and in the long run result in little or no long term effect. However, small changes, over the course of longer periods of time can result in huge changes. And all the while, the small change you made is virtually imperceptible to your daily life.

Your mileage may vary, but give it a try! Start with something small, set an intention for change, and monitor yourself regularly. Watch the changed you unfold.

Now, I need some help from you.

After receiving very good questions from you for my Q&A blog post, I wanted to offer up another opportunity for you to pick the content of my upcoming writings.

Your assignment if you choose to accept it, Email, text, or respond in the comments of this message, to provide me a topic you would like me to write about. It can be anything, anything at all. With a few exceptions, I will do my best to write about the topic you choose! It can be something you are curious to know about me. Or it can be some sort of informative blog post on a subject you simply want to know more about but don’t really have the desire to research. Make it fun! I want to write! And I want to write about things of direct interest to you!

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2 comments on “Choose Your Own Blog Post”

i enjoyed your subject, i can’t remember how old you are now but i know you have learned something that many people don’t realize until they a really old and reflect on their life. i also learned some of what you said before i became that old person which i am now lol. i found also that when i set long term goals i eventually got them. as you mentioned not always fast but i did obtain what i was shooting for.
question — are you now looking for a career and in what are you interested, Have a great day and i will have more topics and questions, need to think about what etc, take care

Well since you asked… In regards to what direction your writing should take we would turn the question back to you and ask “what are you the most passionate about when you write?” What subject seems to flow naturally without much effort. As Tony and i say “Follow your joy” don’t write what you think people want to read… Write what is interesting and inspiring to you and you will remain passionate. If you write about topics you think you “have” to it will quickly become a job. And kudos to you for continuing to follow your joy by continuing to honor the spark you found in yourself on this journey that wants to write. You are putting yourself out there and at the end of the day that’s what everyone wants to read.